Plethora Rye IPA

>> Sunday, February 21, 2016

I've been trying to get around to brewing this beer for a few weeks now. Things just kept getting in the way...then caught the flu. I'm still not 100%, but I'm feeling a lot better so I decided to brew this up today.

Today's recipe is based on Wytchmaker Farmhouse Rye IPA from Jester King and utilizes The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation blend. Based on the description, I think this yeast blend will perform very well in a hop-focused beer like an IPA. This blend is described as follows:

Amalgamation is the union of our six favorite Brettanomyces isolates from our microbe library. Each isolate produces a unique bouquet of bright and fruity flavors and aromas, and the combination of all of them into one blend results in the coalescence of these unique flavors and aromas into something truly special.

Expect this blend to create a dry beer with a bright and complex fruit-forward flavor and aroma, accompanied by some funk on the palate.

Temperature: 70 - 80 ºF
Attenuation: 85%+
Flocculation: Low

This recipe comes straight from Jester King. In addition to fantastic beer, Jester King has some of the coolest label art with Wytchmaker being one of my favorites. I got to try this beer a while back and it was pretty tasty. Seems like it should be a great pairing with the Amalgamation Brett blend from TYB.

Lately I've been using some dextrose in my IPAs to ensure they finish dry and drinkable. I won't be doing that with this recipe; instead I'll be relying on the plethora of brett strains in the yeast blend to dry out the beer. The recipe as I'm brewing it:

8 # 13 oz Great Western Full Pint Malt
1 # 9 oz Weyermann Rye
28g US Goldings (60 min)
56g Chinook (10 min)
28g Falconer's Flight (Whirlpool)
28g Zythos (Whirlpool)
0.5 Whirlfloc
0.5 t Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
The Yeast Bay Amalgamation - Brett Blend
56g Citra (Dry hop)
56g Falconer's Flight (Dry hop)
56g Simco (Dry hop)

Mash at 151F, 90 min boil, chill to 66F then allow to free-rise to room temp.

Water Profile
Tasty Water - To 10 gallons of RO water:
  • 16g Gypsum (CASO4)
  • 7g Epsom salt (MgSO4)
  • 2g Canning salt (NaCl)
  • 1g  Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
Brewing Notes
No issues with this session. Gravity came in a bit higher than I was shooting for 1.059 and came in at 1.066.

Update 2/23/2016
This beer is starting to worry me a little bit. Usually I see activity fairly quickly, but this one still isn't showing visible signs of fermentation. I did a 1.5l starter for about a week, cold crashed it to decant, then pitched Sunday evening. Couldmbe  characteriscrap....ktic of theses brett strains, but that's a pretty long lag time. I moved the fermentercrash this to a warmer area of the house to try to jump start things. 

Update 2/24/2016
Finally seeing signs of fermentation today. Definitely the longest lag I think I've ever seen. I probably chilled it a bit lower than I should have.

Update 2/29/2016
This one is still plugging along. Krausen is hanging around 1/2" thick with tons of yeast in suspension. I'll let it ride for at least another week or so, then see where things are at. The aroma coming off the airlock is very nice; fairly clean, very hoppy.

Update 3/11/2016
Fermentation is more or less done. I realize this is a blend with low flocculation, but holy crap...this stuff does not drop out! I'll probably have to cold crash this batch because it's downright milky looking right now.

Update 3/20/2016
Pulled a sample today. Aroma is mild brett funk with big fruity notes. Flavor is very similar but fruit character is bigger. There's tons of peach, apricot, plum, and tangerine character. This should be pretty amazing once it's dry-hopped. There's still tons of yeast in suspension and the gravity is still around 1.020. There are still visible signs that fermentation is chugging along, so I'm going to let this ride for a while

Update 5/14/2016
Definitely digging this beer. I pulled a sample tonight and it seems noticeably drier. I'm going to rack this over onto the dry hops very soon, hopefully this weekend if I have time.

Update 5/16/2016
I transferred this beer to secondary tonight on top of a whole bunch of dry hops. I saved the yeast cake and am planning on using it in future brett beers.

Update 5/27/2016
Kegged this beer and started force carbing today. I definitely love the hop combination in this beer.

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